Witch

As the judge passed his verdict, the accused, then the convicted, now the deceased, breathed a sigh of what looked like relief. She had seemed bored all through the proceedings, even as various men of the community recalled with torrid detail her seduction tactics. Goodman Jonas wept as he recounted the spell that compelled him to lock his children in the barn and expose himself to everyone he met.

Hers had been the only relaxed face, and when asked to verify the troubled man’s testimony, she replied with a smile and a quick, “Who am I to deny the word of a man?”

Other stories piled up. She was hollow inside, her opening a beehive, her breasts filled not with milk, but honey, which she force-fed to young boys who strayed from their homes. She was four thousand years old, occasionally a dragon, occasionally a monster made of cobbled-together human flesh, which she tailored using snake-tooth needles.

No one had ever caught her in an immoral act, but that was part of her treachery. She altered the memories of her victims, making their personal problems seem like their own faults. Alive, her skin seemed white and pure, but when it burned, it revealed her true colors as of the race descended from Cain.

The men who grabbed her later complained that they enjoyed the feeling of her body. The evil was sucking them in. Those who lit the flame were soon made to feel regret, the last of her inhuman insubordinations. We in the community must remember, she needed to go. She was the cause of our suffering, and though we may be no longer capable of future progeny, at least we are safe.